Tessa Peake-Jones has said Only Fools And Horses is "best left alone" as she played down the idea of any reboot or revival ahead of the sitcom’s 45th anniversary.
The BBC comedy first aired on 8 September 1981 and follows the Trotter family in Peckham, led by market trader Derek "Del Boy" Trotter (Sir David Jason) and his younger brother Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst).
Peake-Jones, who joined the show in 1988 as Raquel Turner, told the Daily Express the series is "a jewel", adding: "You don’t want to fiddle about with it." She said that while reboots can be tempting, "it’s best left alone".
She also paid tribute to the show’s creator and writer John Sullivan, who died in 2011, calling him "the genius behind the show" and saying she hoped the series would not be revisited.
Peake-Jones is among cast members taking part in a new documentary series for UKTV’s U&GOLD to mark the anniversary. Only Fools And Horses: The Lost Archive is billed as a two-part programme featuring behind-the-scenes material and previously unseen footage, alongside new interviews.
In the interview, Peake-Jones said revisiting old clips was "quite depressing" at times, describing it as an odd experience watching themselves from decades ago.
Only Fools And Horses ran until 2003, and Sullivan later wrote spin-off series The Green Green Grass (2005 to 2009) and prequel Rock & Chips (2010).
A stage musical adaptation co-written by Paul Whitehouse opened at London’s Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2019, and later toured, including dates in Dublin in July 2025.
Source: Press Association
